How much does it cost?

Accommodation and First Month's Donation:
We are very particlar about financial transparency for all interested volunteers.
All projects take a once-off "donation" on your arrival to cover your accommodation
and to help them run their projects. You will give this directly
to the director of the orphanage/ project upon your arrival. On each project's
webpage, we have written the price that you will be expected to give when
you come. All prices are in US$ but you can pay the equivalent in any major
currency.

You will notice that for many projects, the first month is a bit more expensive
than subsequent months - this is because most have integrated a non-refundable
$250 donation to build up the project along with the monthly cost to cover
your food and accommodation (usually $100 - $200 depending on the project).
The directors are expected to provide you with feedback as to how your first
month's donation is being used.

If you intend to stay for a longer term, for example a year, then we suggest
that volunteers come for 6 months and then re-evaluate their presence in
the project and then make an agreement with the director for the remainder
of the time. It should then be obvious to both volunteer and director if
they are compatible with each other. Most projects will welcome long term
volunteers but request this getting to know each other time, before committing
to the full year before you would come. You may be able to negotiate with
the director for the remaining months to be free of charge.

Extra expenses:
There may be minimal extra expenses that you will also have to take into
account e.g. some projects charge for airport collection (usually around
$25) and a basic orientation when you would arrive. Some projects ask that
you take language classes at the same time. You will pay the teacher or
school directly when you take these. You will be told about any of these
additional costs in the volunteer manual.

Fundraising:
Some volunteers in the past have raised their project donation money through
collecting donations from friends and family or small fundraising events
before leaving. Considering that in most cases, it will not "put you
out of pocket" too much, it should not create too much difficulty for
you, as we understand many volunteers may also be students. Our aim is to
keep these donations to a minimum, but your contribution helps the projects
significantly to maintain their premises and to improve their facilities.

On the other hand, there have been many volunteers, who after returning
home from their volunteership, have wanted to fundraise for a particular
aspect of the project where they volunteered. Kids Worldwide is affiliated
to AMURT which is a global relief organisation registered as a charity in
many countries around the world. What this means for you, is that if you
do decide to fundraise, write to us and we will tell you whether or not you may be able to offer tax
deductible donations for donors in your area who wish to support the project
you are fundraising for. Note, that this is only an option if AMURT is registered
in your country and is only used in instances where you are clearly fundraising
for an aspect of the project which the director is aware of.

Besides this, we require that all volunteers bring with them a suitcase
full of toys, books or arts materials to donate to the orphanage. Click
here to read more about our Treasure Hunt programme.

I have looked at other volunteering programmes
on the internet and they cost so much more. Why is this?

Firstly, some of the other programs may include the cost of ticketing in
their charges (although many don't) as well as provide classes for their
volunteers to attend before coming, for which they will charge. (We will
communicate by email with you all the necessary information which we feel
you should know before you come). Besides this, they have their internal
administration costs which they will be aiming at covering through your
fees.

KIDS does not act as a "middle man", and for this reason you
should find these costs the cheapest available on the internet. We do all
our work voluntarily. Each volunteer coordinator receives only a small amount
from your booking fee to help cover their phone and internet bills associated
with communicating with you. It is one of our ways of serving the children
and the projects who are in need. To give is always so much more uplifting
than to receive. You can read more about how and why we began here.

Besides this, we believe in the sincerity with which you are coming to
the project to help. You will be bringing skills with you that can assist
the childrens' projects to run more efficiently, effectively and most importantly
to provide the individual attention to the kids, that all directors wish
to assure more of, for their children. This work and your sincerity are
the most valuable asset of all, and so we wish to assist as many volunteers
find placements in which they can serve without being exploited by any other
agency in the process. A price can never be put on that.

That said however, because we don't charge for our services, we cannot
offer the security that a larger organisation may be able to provide. Volunteers
travel individually, not in a group (unless coming with thier own friends
or partners) and in the occasion of something disastrous, we rely on the
directors of the projects to assist you. If a volunteer is unhappy with
thier placement, the volunteer coordinator will try his or her best to reassign
the volunteer to another project, but we can't take on responsibility for
the volunteer should they be dissatisfied and want a refund. That is an
arrangement between the project director who the volunteer paid the money
to and the volunteer. We do ask to hear from volunteers however if the director
did not refund thier money. To be on our website, one of the cirteria that
they have to agree to is to refund a volunteer's food and accomodation money
if the volunteer wants to pull out early.

Mailing
Lists

Write to past and current volunteers
at the project that you are interested in.

What dates are the programmes being run?

You determine when and for how long you wish to come. Please check
the project pages however to determine whether specific months are free.
Some projects specify that volunteers arrive at the start of a school term,
or have other requirements. In this way you will be much more likely to
get a placement. Usually if you are intending to come for a short time only,
e.g. three weeks or less, then apply anyway to whichever project you are
interested in, telling your exact travel dates, and the director may be
ready to let you come.

When you submit the application form, please think carefully about the
time commitment that you will be able to offer. It makes it difficult for
us to accept you for the month of May and then have you delay until June
or July, when we had accepted someone else. It can be frustrating for both
us and the directors who were relying on you at that time, and will mean
lots of reshuffling. If you are unable to come at the time for which you
booked in for, then you will lose your booking fee and may have to transfer
to another project. If you can come later, then it is up to the discretion
of the volunteer coordinator as to whether you have to pay another booking
fee. Usually, if the date of your arrival changes by more than a third of
the time you were intending to stay with us, then you will lose your fee.

For example: a volunteer books to come on 1st February for 3 months. She
has to delay until the 15th March, but still intends to stay for 3 months.
She will lose her fee because she has changed her dates by one and a half
months (half the period of time she was intending to stay) and will interfere
with bookings in May and June (very popular times for bookings).

Example 2: a volunteer books to come in April for 6 months. He then writes
to say that he can only come in May for 5 months. He will not lose his fee
because the time he has changed is less than a third of the original intended
time. It will also not significantly affect the bookings.

If you intend to volunteer more than 6 months after the date that you apply,
we recommend that you don't fill in an application form yet. Subsribe yourself
to one of the mailing lists for volunteers so
that you can keep in touch with us, but wait until closer to the period
of time that you want tocome. There is nearly always space 5-6 months from
the date that you apply. Likewise, we prefer to know about your interest
to volunteer at least a month before arriving. In special cases we can organise
your arrival sooner than that, if there is a vacancy but it will be stressful
for you to organise your travel and visas in time.

What kind of work will I do as a volunteer?

Most projects will be more than ready to integrate any special skills that
you may bring with you into their programme. In general however, you can
expect to be involved in the following sorts of tasks:

Office work, using the computer to assist in making of newsletters
etc.

Running kindergarten classes or tutoring kids.

Assisting the children with their homework, reading them stories and
organising creative activities for them.

Assisting in fundraising activities.

Giving individual attention to children whom the director has identified
and assigned for you to take a special interest in.

Helping with toddlers and their daily care.

Can I volunteer in another way?

Definitely! If you don't have the time to volunteer by visiting and staying
for some time in an orphanage but would still like to help out with the
work we are doing, we would gladly accept your help.

We need help in networking with new projects, designing web sites for projects
and volunteer supervision. Please feel free to contact any of the supervisors
or the director to offer your support. You can get in touch with us by checking
out the details on the contact page

Which projects can I volunteer in?

We have partnerships with orphanages and childrens projects in numerous
countries. The directors of each project have designed programmes and activities
to provide volunteers with rewarding and inspirational service experiences,
as well as to provide the children in the projects with the much needed
love and attention that they deserve. Click here
to read about the projects available.

We are receiving requests from projects quite regularly to help them to
get volunteers, but it takes us time to collect all the information that
we need from the directors to make a webpage for them, and we often like
to send a volunteer co-ordinator there to check out the place first, if
it is possible. Please read the appropriate pages to know when you can volunteer
and the requirements.

If you are of a pioneering spirit and would be eager to offer to go to
a new project to check it out, please get in touch with us! We can't guarantee
exactly what you are likely to come across, but your research and information
gathering will be most helpful to assist future volunteers in preparing,
should we decide to include the project on the website. Likewise, if you
are planning a trip to a country where there are no KIDS projects and encounter
credible and sincere aid projects that you think would benefit with input
from international volunteers, please don't hesitate to also write to us.
You can thus take up the role of a volunteer or
project coordinator.

All the projects currently on our website have dealt with overseas volunteers
before or have had considerable discussions with the director about how
they will manage volunteers and are ready to start receiving their first
international volunteers. If you choose a project which is new, and there
is no volunteer feedback currently related to that project, please get in
touch with us if you would like to help communicate with volunteers about
the project. Also be aware that it is a new project and as such, we will
really appreciate to hear from you how you are finding it so that we can
communicate this with other volunteers who would also like to come. The
projects have been represented on the website as the director and previous
volunteers have found the project. If a volunteer feels that the project
has been misrepresented, we also are keen to hear from them.

Is this a religious organisation?

KIDS is a non-religious, universal organisation which is based on the ideals
of love and compassionate service to all regardless of race, religion and
sex. We base our educational programs on the philosophy of Neo-Humanism
which is a modern ecological and spiritual method of education.

Some of the projects which we organise volunteers for may have their own
religious leanings but all directors understand and endorse the true spirit
of universalism and as such will never push their own beliefs on you. Your
beliefs will be respected at all times, and we expect that you will respect
theirs likewise.

How do I apply?

Simply fill in the volunteer's form at the bottom of each project and we will
try to get back to you within a couple of days. Please have patience, as
your requests are being dealt with by volunteers themselves, and so sometimes
there may be a delay. If you don't hear back from us within a couple of
weeks, please try to write to us again to ask how your application is going.
Sometimes we aren't able to respond to your application because inadvertently
you may spell your email address wrong when you fill out the application
form, or sometimes people's email addresses block our reply emails. And
sometimes, maybe for some mysterious reason, we just didn't get your message.
It is our policy to reply to all emails that we get, so there will be a
reason why you haven't heard back from us within two days.

Answer the forms as fully and as honestly as you can. You will see from
the application that we are not into bureacracy but we do like to get to
know you!

You are responsible for your air ticket and travel related expenses. KIDS
does not take any responsibility for this. In some places you may be provided
with a bicycle to get around, but in others, you will have to pay for your
bus fares to and fro.

If you receive notification from us that we would like you to come, we
will expect you to reply back with clearer dates within a week, and an expression
of your continued interest so that we could book your space more firmly.
Unfortunately we do get some people who apply on a whim, and then later
change their minds after we have informed that we would be happy to accept
them. In order to try to solve this problem, we do rely on continued communication
from your side about your interest. It also helps both you, us and the orphanage
directors to get to know each other better.

I don't speak the language in the
country where I want to volunteer. Will this be a problem?

In many of the projects, the director can understand English, and sometimes
the kids too. If the project is in a country where the language is different
from your mother tongue, we strongly advise that you take language classes
whilst there and self-study or do courses in your home country prior to
leaving.

In Brazil, language teachers come to the orphanage to offer Portuguese
language classes for foreigners, or you can choose your own school to study
at. You will be fairly fluent within 3 months. It is good that you take
this into account when you decide on the length of time that you wish to
spend in a project. For volunteers who are already familiar with Spanish,
we expect that you should be able to handle the language within about a
month, depending on your ability. In Peru, Spanish classes are automatically
included in your fee and you will be expected to teach English classes in
exchange for the Spanish tuition.

What are the food and accomodation arrangements?

Your donation will cover your accomodation arrangements and in most cases
your food. Some of the projects only serve vegetarian food as part of their
ideology, in which instance, you may choose to arrange your own diet. In
the end, most volunteers choose to eat what is prepared at the project however.
Please be aware that your hosts may wish to buy you Western food, but it
is very costly, and your donation money may not stretch to include it if
they regularly provide it. In Africa, meat is only eaten rarely, so if you
expect meat on a daily basis, then you need to provide extra. Milk and milk
products are also extremely expensive, so please supplement this yourself
if you wish it regularly.

If you do wish to arrange your own food due to special dietary restrictions
or preferences, then discuss it with the volunteer co-ordinator that you
will be corresponding with so that this can be taken into account.

It depends on the country in which you choose to volunteer, how much you
will be likely to need as extra pocket money to bring with you. In most
instances, these costs will be fairly small due to Western currency being
strong compared to that in developing countries. You will of course buy
your own snacks, special foods, toiletries etc.

Are there any restrictions on the volunteers
that you take?

Volunteers should be 18 years old at the time of their travel. There is
no upper age limit - we have had 70 years olds coming to help in some of
our projects! That said, most of our volunteers are commonly between 18
and 30 years of age.

Directors at different projects may allow a little discretion with the
age - if you are 17 they may consider you, so don't despair - they will,
however, require that you bring signed parental permission with you, and
may ask to communicate with your parents before fully accepting you into
the project.

Some projects have specified that they only want female volunteers, others
are open to both sexes. Please be aware of this when you apply.

Can I communicate with the director of the
project where I want to volunteer?

When you apply through our website, we will pass on your information to
the director or volunteer coordinator of each childrens home. Some of the
directors have email contact and will then directly communicate with you
any extra information you wish to know. Please remember that they are very
busy people and coupled with the fact that they are in developing countries
with difficulties accessing the internet, it may take time for them to respond
to your e-mails. For this reason, many of the projects have elected a volunteer
co-ordinator to deal with the applications. Often-times, these are longer
term volunteers already at the project, who maintain a close contact with
the director or they have already returned home from volunteering at the
project and wish to stay involved in this way.

Other orphanages however, do not have email contact or have requested us
to deal with the arrangement of volunteers. In this case, we will ensure
that you know all you wish to know in order to assure your comfort and mental
peace. You will be communicating at all times with people who are very familiar
with the project that you will be getting involved in.

Can I communicate with volunteers who have already been to the
project?

Certainly! We encourage all prospective volunteers to get in touch with
past volunteers. This not only benefits the volunteer, but it also ensures
that there is continuity between the efforts of volunteers and that knowledge
and hints are passed on.

We currently have several mailing lists for volunteers
- old, current and new to share ideas and tips about how to prepare for
travelling to the project you may be interested in.

When I arrive, what are the arrangements
for collection at the airport?

If you inform us of your flight details, then your volunteer co-ordinator
will ensure that arrangements are made to get you safely to the project
where you will be volunteering.

What about visas, vaccinations and all
that horrible stuff?

Please check out from the embassy in your country what the visa requirements
are. You should enter on a tourist visa. We do not have the arrangements
in place yet for applying for volunteer visas.

For travelling to any country in Africa or South America, you are required
to have taken yellow fever vaccination. You will be given a yellow card
which the immigrations will not check upon your arrival but when you leave.
If you intend to travel around to different countries, then it is advisable
to get your cholera shot too.

Other vaccinations like hepatitis are optional and it is up to you to decide
whether you think it necessary or not

What if I get sick?

Before travelling, you should make yourself aware of all health requirements
for the region you will be travelling to and get the suitable vaccinations
before leaving.

Be aware that in Africa and some parts of Asia, malaria is common, so bring
the necessary prophylactics (preventatives) before you come, as well as
a mosquito net which will cover your whole body.

If you do get sick, then the director of the orphanage will make sure that
you can get suitable medical treatment.

It is up to you to decide whether you wish to take out medical or travel
insurance before you go. You should organise this yourself as it is not
covered in our programme.

Is there anything else that KIDS require?

We would love to hear back from you as to your experience when you return
from your volunteering so that we can include it in our volunteers' experiences
section which is linked off each project page. In fact this is a requirement
for the projects to continue to receive volunteers, so please do let us
know how you found your time.

We would really appreciate it if you would offer to be a correspondent
for future volunteers who wish to volunteer in the same project that you
visited, if the orphanage does not have email contact.

Steps to take if you wish to volunteer:

Fill out the volunteer form

We try to respond to your application or quesries within a couple of days. Sometimes
we are unable to respond, due to an incorrect email address being given,
or server errors which mean we may not get your email or your email
box is full or has certain restrictions on it which don't allow our
responses to get through to you. It is our policy to respond to all
emails that we receive, so please do get back to us if you don't hear
from us within a couple of days. Sometimes also there are delays caused
by necessary coordinators being absent or travelling.

Collect toys for the Treasure Hunt programme.

Prepare yourself and your ticket and be ready to begin your adventure!
It is highly recommended that you plan a mini-project that you can get
involved in whilst at the project. This may be something like teaching
swimming lessons to the kids, or making musical insruments with different
classes, remedial reading coaching, getting a water tank installed...
check with your volunteer coordinator on possible activities you may
help out with dependent on your interests and skills.

On return, provide us with feedback on your experience. Please make
a point of doing this, even if your volunteer coordinator forgets to
remind you.